Heavily armed immigration agents descend on L.A.'s MacArthur Park
They came with horses and armored vehicles, carrying rifles and in tactical gear in the middle of what is the heart of immigrant Los Angeles. But there were few of their supposed targets to be found Monday — immigrants without documentation.
Since at least Sunday, rumors had spread about an operation at the park. Fliers were plastered around the area, warning that Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or la migra as they're also known, were coming.
It's unclear if anyone was arrested during the sweep. 'We don't comment on ongoing enforcement operations," said a senior Department of Homeland Security official when asked for comment on whether any arrests had been made.
"It is outrageous and un-American that we have federal armed vehicles in our park," Mayor Karen Bass said at an impromptu press conference at City Hall after federal authorities cleared out. "What happened to the criminals, the drug dealers, the violent individuals? Who were in the park today were children. It was their summer camp, their summer day camp."
The park sits in the heart of a dense immigrant community marked by poverty and a thriving street culture. Vendors line the streets, and the palm-tree-dotted park is filled with playgrounds and fields, where many of the families living in nearby apartments find refuge. But it has also become known for prevalent drug use, where people are frequently seen smoking out of pipes on the sidewalk and in nearby alleys, though the city has made a concerted effort to turn it around.
"MacArthur Park is the Ellis Island of the West Coast. It was chosen as this administration's latest target precisely because of who lives there and what it represents: resilience, diversity and the American dream," said City Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, who represents the area. She said the National Guard descended on the park alongside agents bringing military weapons. "Please understand that what's happening here in the city of Los Angeles, we are the canary in the coal mine. What you see happening in MacArthur Park is coming to you ... So wake up."
Monday's sweep comes days after President Trump signed a budget bill that will provide a mass infusion of funds to drastically ramp up immigration enforcement and detention levels across the country. Los Angeles has become the poster child of Trump's mass deportation plan, as more than 1,600 people have been arrested between June 6 and 22.
"There's no plan other than fear, chaos and politics. Home Depot one day, a car wash the next, armed vehicles and what looked like mounted military units in a park the next day," Bass said.
Read more: MacArthur Park, riddled with drugs and crime, is different now, mayor says
The agents appeared around 10:30 a.m. after amassing at nearby locations. Once they were at the park, they were met with crowds of people screaming "get the f— out!" and "get out!" Bass showed up at the park after being alerted about some kind of military or immigration operation there.
While at the park Monday, Assistant Chief Border Patrol Agent David Kim handed his cellphone to Bass to speak with U.S. Border Patrol Sector Chief Greg Bovino, who has been leading enforcement efforts on the ground in Los Angeles. Bass could be heard saying on a live news feed, "You're getting ready to leave? Can you leave ASAP?"
Demonstrators began to chant, drowning out her conversation. Bass handed the phone back to Kim.
When asked to comment at the park, Bass said the federal immigration agents needed "to leave and they need to leave right now, they need to leave because this is unacceptable." When asked who she was talking to on the other end of the line she said it was "the head of customs."
She left the area shortly afterward in a black SUV.
Activists, who have been on high alert for weeks, appeared to be prepared to deploy lawyers to the scene. Fliers in English and Spanish were posted around the park warning that ICE would be raiding the park July 7.
Ron Gochez, a member of Unión del Barrio, an independent political organization advocating for immigrant rights and social justice, said there were people at the Home Depot in Westlake who spotted the agents heading toward MacArthur Park.
Soon afterward, they posted about the deployment on social media to alert community members. Gochez said word had started to spread about the operation Sunday.
"This was just one big, perverse publicity stunt," said Gochez, in a call from the park Monday morning. "It was just to show force, it was just to take pictures."
Read more: MacArthur Park goes quiet amid ICE sweeps. 'They're targeting people that look like me'
The chaos on Wilshire Boulevard around MacArthur Park had mostly calmed by 11:30 a.m., though a few protesters and members of the news media lingered afterward.
Mikema Nahmir, 28, said he was out for his morning walk at 11 a.m. when he saw two women running down the street yelling that "la migra' was at MacArthur Park.
Nahmir joined the group of protesters who chased and yelled after the military-style trucks. At one point, he said, someone from the truck shot out an irritant toward him and another protester.
'L.A. is ours, this is our city,' Nahmir said. 'This is what my morning walk turned into. They're terrorizing our neighborhood.'
About an hour after the raid, some people returned to the park to play, but the street vendors were mostly absent.
Dozens of protesters stuck around, some carrying Mexican or Salvadoran flags.
'Whose streets? Our streets!" they chanted. An organizer said they planned to march from the park to Koreatown.
Fernando Rodriguez runs a small shop selling everyday household goods and snacks across the street from MacArthur Park said he quickly dragged in his cooler full of drinks and ice and shut the metal gate of his store when agents showed up.
'It's really sad,' he said. 'The nightmare is just beginning.'
People quickly scattered. Business was already down, but he only expects it to get worse.
'We're all affected,' he said. 'People don't walk around like they used to.'
Bovino, who is based near the U.S.-Mexico border along with others in the Trump administration, was sued last week by immigrant rights groups seeking to block what it calls an 'ongoing pattern and practice of flouting the Constitution and federal law' during immigration raids.
They argue raids have targeted individuals based on race, lack due process, and some practices are akin to kidnapping rather than legal enforcement. The suit also contends immigrants are kept in inhumane conditions at a downtown detention facility. A hearing is set for later this week in federal court.
A coalition of 18 states including California threw their support Monday behind the lawsuit, arguing the illegal stops have "shattered [the] rhythms of everyday life" in some neighborhoods.
"The cumulative effect of defendants' unlawful actions — including unconstitutional stops — has had devastating impacts on California's peace and prosperity, and has turned once bustling neighborhoods into ghost towns," the states said in a brief.
Bovino warned on X that this wasn't the last time immigration agents would be at the park.
"We may well go back to MacArthur Park or other places in and around Los Angeles. Illegal aliens had the opportunity to self deport, now we'll help things along a bit."
Times reporters Richard Winton, Ruben Vives, Kevin Rector, Noah Goldberg and Libor Jany contributed to this report.
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
WIRED
12 minutes ago
- WIRED
The 911 Calls Inside ICE Detention Centers
By Leah Feiger and Dhruv Mehrotra Jul 8, 2025 12:15 PM On this episode of Uncanny Valley , we unpack WIRED's recent investigation of 911 calls made from the facilities where Immigration and Customs Enforcement detains migrants. Photo-illustration: WIRED Staff; Getty Images Our senior politics editor Leah Feiger speaks with WIRED's Dhruv Mehrotra about an exclusive WIRED investigation into how serious medical incidents are increasing at some of the country's largest immigration detention centers. You can follow Leah Feiger on Bluesky at @leahfeiger and Dhruv Mehrotra on Bluesky at @dmehro. Write to us at uncannyvalley@ Mentioned in this episode: 'They're Not Breathing': Inside the Chaos of ICE Detention Center 911 Calls by Dhruv Mehrotra and Dell Cameron How to Protect Yourself From Phone Searches at the US Border by Lily Hay Newman and Matt Burgess The WIRED Guide to Protecting Yourself From Government Surveillance by Andy Greenberg and Lily Hay Newman Here's What Mark Zuckerberg Is Offering Top AI Talent by Zoë Schiffer How to Listen You can always listen to this week's podcast through the audio player on this page, but if you want to subscribe for free to get every episode, here's how: If you're on an iPhone or iPad, open the app called Podcasts, or just tap this link. You can also download an app like Overcast or Pocket Casts and search for 'uncanny valley.' We're on Spotify too. Transcript Note: This is an automated transcript, which may contain errors. Leah Feiger: Hey, this is Leah. Do you have a tech-related question that's been on your mind or just a topic that you wish we talked about more on the show? If so, you can write to us at uncannyvalley@ And if you listen to and enjoy our episodes, please rate it and leave a review on your podcast app of choice. It really helps other people find us. And a heads up that this episode deals with sensitive content like suicide attempts and sexual assault, please take care while listening. Welcome to WIRED's Uncanny Valley . I'm WIRED Senior politics editor Leah Feiger, filling in today for Zoe Schiffer. Today on the show, an exclusive WIRED investigation on how serious medical incidents are increasing at some of the country's largest immigration detention centers. By looking at data from 911 calls, WIRED reporters, Dhruv Mehrotra and Del Cameron found that in at least 60% of the ICE centers they analyzed, there were reports of serious pregnancy complications, suicide attempts, or sexual assault allegations. Their findings show how these detention centers have quickly become overwhelmed, following the administration's immigration crackdown, and its mandate for more frequent and often indiscriminate arrests. To dive into the show, I'm joined by WIRED's Dhruv Mehrotra. Dhruv, welcome. Dhruv Mehrotra: Hi. Thanks for having me. Leah Feiger: So Dhruv, talk me through how you went about reporting this. What prompted you to look at the 911 calls from ICE detention centers? And most importantly, what did you find? Dhruv Mehrotra: Well, immigration detention centers are largely black boxes, right? Attorneys can't see living areas. And advocates told us that even tightly controlled tours have mostly stopped getting approved by ICE. At the same time arrests are surging, and we've been hearing reports about deteriorating conditions. So what we really wanted to know here was, what's actually happening inside of these overcrowded facilities right now? People in custody often are too afraid to speak publicly, and ICE can take months or even years in some cases to respond to records requests. So instead Del and I decided to kind of look more locally, right? We looked at local agencies like sheriff's departments and EMS crews for records from people who respond directly to ICE facilities when there's a real emergency. So that led us to these 911 call records, which offered one of the clearest, and frankly the most alarming windows into how overwhelmed the system really is. Leah Feiger: And so when tracing the spike in all of these medical incidents, you also looked at 10 of the country's largest immigration detention centers. There was one that really stood out. Stewart Detention Center in rural Georgia. You reported that the population at this center has actually increased by 10%, and the medical emergencies at the center have more than tripled. And they've also reported more in-custody deaths since 2017 than any other facility nationwide. What is going on there? How does something like that even happen? Dhruv Mehrotra: Yeah. As you mentioned, Stewart really stood out in the data. And in fact, as we were reporting the story out, two people at Stewart or on their way to Stewart died according to ICE, including one by suicide early last month. So part of what makes Stewart so dangerous, I think, is where it's located. Stewart is in a remote rural county in Georgia, hours from advanced medical care. Local hospitals have shut down, and according to the records we have, EMS response times are long. And in emergencies, detainees can be left waiting hours, right? One kind of particularly shocking call here is that we got a call from a pregnant woman who was reportedly spitting up blood. And EMS logs show that it took over two hours to clear that call. Leah Feiger: That's wild. Dhruv Mehrotra: Yeah. It's devastating to listen to, and to think through what these records really mean. But the numbers don't really capture the full story. So we also spoke to families of people who were detained at Stewart, and attorneys who visited regularly. And they all largely described the same thing, which is a system that's really buckling under its own weight. Leah Feiger: I think something that really stood out to me as well from these cases from Stewart in your reporting, is all of the abruptly dropped 911 calls as well. It really created this picture of an us versus them. People just entirely captured, caged almost, while this is going on, unable to actually even get assistance. Dhruv Mehrotra: Yeah. I mean, the records that we have are 911 calls, right? And so they are only records of things that resulted in a call. And experts tell us that for every one call that we got, there's probably many, many, many more medical emergencies that go unreported. And the records give some kind of clue into that, right? I think one good example of what you're talking about, Leah, is a call that we received from a woman at Stewart who got a hold of the phone, and called 911, and basically kept asking the dispatcher for help. She said, "I need help, I need a UTA." And the call abruptly dropped. [Archival audio]: 911, where is your emergency? [Archival audio]: Do you speak in Spanish? [Archival audio]: Excuse me? [Archival audio]: Do you speak in Spanish? [Archival audio]: No, ma'am. [Archival audio]: I need help, a UTA. [Archival audio]: Are you in the prison? [Archival audio]: Yeah. In jail, yeah, by name... Dhruv Mehrotra: So the dispatcher called back. And when the dispatcher called back, a staff member answered the phone, and basically dismissed it, saying, "Look, sorry, we're at a detention center, a detainee called 911." And no ambulance was sent. [Archival audio]: I'm sorry, we're at a- [Archival audio]: [Inaudible] [Archival audio]: We're a detention center, Stewart Detention Center, and the detainee called 911. I'm sorry. [Archival audio]: Okay, thank you. Dhruv Mehrotra: And even in that call, you can hear this detainee kind of pleading in the background. So clearly this is a moment where someone thought that they needed medical care, and they weren't able to get it and they were prevented from getting it. And really, this is just one example, multiple family members of detainees told us the same thing. That their loved ones haven't been able to get the care that they have needed, even in times when they believe that their loved one should have been brought to the hospital for a serious crisis. Leah Feiger: Right, and like you said, you spoke to family members and you also spoke to immigration lawyers and experts to really fill in these gaps and contextualize what you found because you had the 911 calls and not that much more else. What were some of these gaps that they filled in for you? Dhruv Mehrotra: We were careful not to treat the 911 data as the full story because sometimes it's just audio that we have, other times it's just sort of a brief narrative of a medical emergency. So these calls only capture moments when emergencies were bad enough, or visible enough for staff to pick up the phone and call. But experts and advocates are quick to point out that for every call there are likely many others that weren't made. So in the conversations that we had with attorneys and families and formerly detained people, those conversations were crucial, they gave us the context that the records alone couldn't. A woman named Mildred Pierre, her fiance is a double amputee who's detained at Stewart. She told us that in the last month or so, he broke his prosthetic limbs in a fall. And he had to wait for days to be even seen by medical staff at Stewart. Another example is a woman named Kylie Chinchilla who said that her daughter, who's a nursing student with scoliosis and also a detainee at Stewart, is often left sleeping on the floor in pain with parts of her face going numb. And her condition is getting worse and she's in pain. Leah Feiger: Let's take a quick break. We're going to be right back. And when we return, we're going to look further into what has led to this increase in medical emergencies at ICE centers. When considering what factors have led to this increase in medical emergencies at ICE centers, overcrowding is one of the main ones. Dhruv, can you tell me how bad is it right now? And is this a direct result of the current administration's immigration crackdown? Dhruv Mehrotra: So overcrowding is a critical piece of this puzzle according to experts and immigration attorneys that we spoke to. Overall ICE's detained population has jumped over 48% since January, now exceeding 59,000 people. And I mean, that's just an estimate, right? The numbers probably far higher than that. And that's swell in population isn't by accident, it follows a deliberate policy push by this administration. Earlier this year ICE, under the direction of senior administration officials, intensified enforcement efforts and ramped up arrests. And that, of course, led to an influx of detainees, many of whom have these pre-existing health conditions, and that stretched medical units and staffing beyond their limits, according to the experts that we spoke to. And remember, these aren't violent offenders who are being held. The administration has made it sort of deliberate policy choice to target virtually anyone, even people who have been here for decades and haven't been convicted of any kind of violent crime. Not that it matters in this case, right? No one should be treated like this, but I think it's important to contextualize who's being held here in civil detention, not criminal detention. Leah Feiger: Absolutely. President Donald Trump and his really right-hand man on immigration, Stephen Miller, they are pushing day in, day out. It feels like you cannot go a single week in this administration without hearing about these renewed goals to increase ICE numbers, and to increase ICE funding, and just their ability to take kind of whoever they want off the streets right now in an effort to really buoy their numbers. And you guys also spent a good bit of time talking about how these ICE centers are in such remote areas, which at least from the outside, makes it seem like it would be pretty hard to get these folks support that they would need. Is this tactical? Dhruv Mehrotra: Yeah. That's a good question. I can say that as a strategy, ICE has been moving people around from detention center to detention center. And in an effort from what experts described to kind of deprive people of the representation that they have, or the immigration attorneys that they've retained, or from family members and loved ones. So I think moving people around and moving people from, in one case I talked to someone who was moved from Buffalo, New York all the way to Adelanto, California in a matter of days, and that's across the country. He didn't know anybody over there. Leah Feiger: Right, that's massive, that's everything. That's your entire community. And you guys did also report that the vast majority of the centers that you looked into are owned by two private prison companies, the GEO Group and CoreCivic. How have they benefited from the administration's approach? And what did they say when you presented them with your findings? Dhruv Mehrotra: Geo Group and CoreCivic currently operate most of the ICE facilities that we reviewed, and I think they operate most of the ICE facilities in general. So under the current administration's aggressive enforcement strategy, which aims to detain around 100,000 people, these two corporations have secured numerous lucrative contracts including these no bid contracts for reopening shuttered prisons. And just to get a sense of the scale here, right? GEO anticipates earning over $70 million in annual revenue just from one new facility. And CoreCivic, the other sort of private prison giant here, they're opening or reopening multiple sites and benefiting from expanded bed capacity. And that's according to reporting from the AP. So we reached out to both of them, and CoreCivic emphasized that their facilities are staffed by licensed medical professionals and adhere to audits and national standards. And that's something that GEO groups similarly pointed out. But those responses, they focused on policy and paperwork, and not the actual kind of cost to families and attorneys and detainees had described. I think there seems to be an unwillingness to even concede that this stuff is happening in their facilities in spite of multiple reports. Leah Feiger: Obviously, the Trump administration has made immigration and immigration crackdown such a core part of their policy platform over the last couple of months. But I do have to say that for years there have been hundreds of reports of sexual assaults and other abuses happening at ICE centers. Is there a path forward for accountability, or are we kind of on pause for the next couple of years while the administration just keeps shoving as many people as they can into these facilities? Dhruv Mehrotra: Right. These problems didn't start with this administration. There have been a sort of long and well-documented history of things like sexual abuse inside of ICE detention centers. And in that regard, our own reporting we found multiple 911 calls in 2025 alone that reference sexual assaults, including one described as staff on detainee. I mean, as you said, it's a deeply serious allegation and it's not new. But what's changed is the ability to respond to it. In recent months, the Trump administration has gutted the oversight offices at DHS that were responsible for investigating these types of abuses in detention, including the CRCL, the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. So without them, there's almost no system left to track or escalate these cases. One advocate I spoke to called it a "black box of impunity." And I think that's a good way to put it. Leah Feiger: We're going to take a quick break. And when we come back, we're going to share our recommendations for what to check out on this week. Welcome back to WIRED's Uncanny Valley . I'm WIRED senior politics editor, Leah Feiger filling in today for Zoe Schiffer. Before we take off, Dhruv, tell our listeners what they absolutely need to read on Dhruv Mehrotra: There are two pieces that I keep returning to. I think if you're listening to this and you're thinking about how it all connects to your rights and your safety. The two pieces that I would recommend on WIRED right now are these guides. So first, we have a guide to how to protect yourself from phone searches at the U.S border. It's a great explainer on what CBP, Customs and Border Protection can do and can't do with your devices when you across the border. And the second piece in the same vein is a WIRED guide to protecting yourself from government surveillance. So yeah, I think those are two really good stories that give you some actionable things to do. Leah Feiger: They're so good. Honestly, cannot recommend those to enough. I feel like anytime that a relative, friend, whoever is like, "What can I do?" I send those guides over, and they're always greeted with a lot of enthusiasm and fear, and fear because it's really terrifying, but really, really good stuff. Okay. My recommendation is in a totally different direction, so bear with me. But the business desk this week led by Zoe Schiffer have been pulling scoop after scoop about the AI talent war that's going on between Sam Altman's OpenAI and Mark Zuckerberg's Meta. And the reason I think that I can't stop thinking about this, is obviously I usually edit politics coverage. And so it is so wild to see these grown adult men just throwing millions and millions and millions of dollars at AI, and random researchers, and talking about their companies as if they're going to save the world, while we're seeing all of this reporting on things that are so sad and so devastating. So I wouldn't say it's levity, but I would say that it is if you want to hate billionaires more, a good read, Dhruv, thank you so much for joining us today. Dhruv Mehrotra: Thanks for having me. Leah Feiger: That's our show for today. We're going to link to all the stories we spoke about in the show notes. Make sure to check out Thursday's episode of Uncanny Valley for a deep critical dive into the man who ushered in the era of artificial intelligence as we know it, Sam Altman. Adriana Tapia produced this episode. Amar Lal mixed this episode. Pran Bandi was our New York studio engineer. Jordan Bell is our executive producer. Conde Nast's Head of Global Audio is Chris Bannon. And Katie Drummond is WIRED's Global Editorial Director.
Fox News
27 minutes ago
- Fox News
WATCH LIVE: Will Cain reacts to ICE agents sounding the alarm about leftist violence
All times eastern Making Money with Charles Payne FOX News Radio Live Channel Coverage WATCH LIVE: Will Cain reacts to ICE agents sounding the alarm about leftist violence
Fox News
27 minutes ago
- Fox News
Federal case against Milwaukee judge accused of concealing illegal migrant should continue, judge recommends
The case against a Milwaukee County judge accused of shielding an illegal migrant from deportation officers will proceed, a federal magistrate judge recommended on Monday. Judge Hannah Dugan is accused of knowingly helping the migrant exit a courtroom through a back door, which was not accessible to the public, in order for him to evade ICE authorities and telling the officers in her court that they needed a warrant to make the arrest. Dugan had filed a motion in May to dismiss the charges against her, saying she was acting in her official capacity as a judge and therefore is immune to prosecution. She argued that the federal government violated Wisconsin's sovereignty by disrupting a state courtroom and prosecuting a state judge. U.S. Magistrate Judge Nancy Joseph on Monday recommended against dropping the charges. The ultimate decision is up to U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman, who can accept the other judge's recommendation or reject it. "A judge's actions, even when done in her official capacity, does not bar criminal prosecution if the actions were done in violation of the criminal law," Joseph wrote. Dugan is charged with obstruction of justice and concealing a person to prevent arrests. She faces up to six years in prison and a $350,000 fine if convicted on both counts. She has already pleaded not guilty. Joseph wrote in her recommendation that while judges have immunity from civil lawsuits seeking monetary damages when engaging in judicial acts, that does not apply to criminal charges like those in this case. Dugan also argued that the prosecution under federal law violated the U.S. Constitution's separation of powers because it overrides the state of Wisconsin's ability to administer its courts. But Joseph said questions about her acting in her official capacity and whether Dugan's conduct was criminal or within her judicial discretion – must be resolved at trial, not in a motion to dismiss. Dugan attorney Steven Biskupic said his team was disappointed in the recommendation and that they would appeal it. "This is only one step in what we expect will be a long journey to preserve the independence and integrity of our courts," Biskupic said. Dugan was arrested by FBI officials in April as federal agents from ICE, FBI, CBP and DEA attempted to arrest illegal immigrant Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, 31, after his scheduled criminal court appearance before Dugan to face three misdemeanor battery charges for allegedly beating up two people. She demanded that the officers proceed to the chief judge's office and, after his hearing ended, escorted Flores-Ruiz and his attorney out a restricted jury door, bypassing the public area where agents were waiting, in order to help him avoid arrest, per a criminal complaint. Officials said they found probable cause that he was removable under U.S. immigration law, given he was previously deported and never sought or obtained permission to re-enter the country. When agents identified themselves to him outside the court on April 18, he fled the scene on foot but was arrested after a short chase, according to the complaint. Attorney General Pam Bondi previously said Flores-Ruiz had beaten up two people, "a guy and a girl." "[He] beat the guy, hit the guy 30 times, knocked him to the ground, choked him, beat up a woman so badly, they both had to go to the hospital." Dugan has worked with legal aid organizations and as executive director of Catholic Charities in the past. She was elected to Branch 31 of the Circuit Court in 2016 and ran unopposed in the 2022 election. She primarily oversees cases in its misdemeanor division, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Her actions, while controversial, have also attracted an all-star legal defense team to argue in court on her behalf. As well as Biskupic, her defense team has tapped former Bush-era solicitor general Paul Clement to represent her. Clement, who was also on Trump's short list of Supreme Court nominees during his first term, is a well-respected litigator who has argued more than 100 cases before the Supreme Court.
